Creating Love One Card at a Time

Baby

Aug 09, 2018

Happy Thursday!! I have to tell you that I'm so glad that it is the "end" of my work week!! Yes, tomorrow is an Off-Friday, and I am so looking forward to this 3-day weekend. I've been real tired this past; fighting off some sort of crud. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little, some time with my stamping girls, and a chance to relax as well.

It's time for our CASE for this week . . . and a return to our "all occasions" stamp-a-stack after yesterday's blog hop fun!!

I have to tell you that I fell in love with the sample at the top left corner of page 84 in our Annual Catalogs. I don't know what it is exactly, but maybe it speaks to the quilter in me. The "ABC" blocks, and the sweetness of the design. I'm not sure I would have looked at this stamp set if it weren't for the brilliant card sample.

Fastened With Love, page 84/85, 2018-2019 Annual Catalog

So let's "open the case" and see what we can find for today's fabulous sample.

1. Score the 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" Pool Party cardstock at 4-1/4" and gently burnish with your bone folder. [Reminder: Fold "inward" on your bump - bump goes to the inside - to get that nice clean professional look]. Use your bone folder gently so as not to "crack" your cardstock. Note: This is a side-fold card.

2. Take one piece of the 4" x 5-1/4" Shimmery White cardstock, and using the largest Oval from your Layering Ovals Framelits, cut out the center. With the other piece of 4" x 5-1/4" Shimmery White cardstock, take the Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (lightly spritz your cardstock with water first), and run it through the Big Shot. Turn the piece of cardstock inside the TIEF 90 degrees, and run it through again. You are going to LOVE the effect of "linen fabric" you get. Layer the Oval cutout cardstock over the embossed cardstock using SNAIL.

3. Using the little triple "star" image in the stamp set, lightly stamp across the front of your Shimmery White layers with Pool Party ink (randomly, and stamp off so some are light and some are darker).

4. Layer the 4" x 1/2" piece of Subtles DSP across the lower third of the Oval using SNAIL.

5. Gently "curve" the "Bundle of Joy" sentiment on a clear block and stamp below the Oval cutout with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

6. Attach the finished layers to the front of the card base.

7. Next, using the 2 block shapes in the stamp set, stamp a block using Memento Tuxedo Black on Mint Macaron, Bermuda Bay, and Flirty Flamingo. Fussy cut out the blocks. [Don't Panic - these are really easy shapes to cut out!]

8. Using the "A, B, & C" images from the stamp set and your Memento Tuxedo Black ink, stamp the "A" on Bermuda Bay cardstock, the "B" on Melon Mambo cardstock; and the "C" on Pool Party cardstock (or Mint Macaron if you'd rather). Fussy cut out each of these letters. [Note: Do not trouble yourself cutting out the centers of the "A" and the "B"; we are only going to cut out the center of the "C".]

9. Using glue dots, attach the letters to the front of the blocks - mixing letter colors to block colors.

10. Use dimensionals and attach your finished blocks to the front of your card, centered across your Oval cutout. Finish your letters off with some Clear Wink of Stella.

11. Add a few Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins and this sweet little card is finished!!

Don't you just love it!?! I hope my stamping gals don't panic on Saturday because they're making 5 of these in one batch!! LOL Honestly, it's really not a difficult design; and I just adore these letter blocks. The other fabulous feature of this design is that you can change up the color palette to work for a girl or a boy. And since I love yellow, I can see this card in Daffodil Delight (or even Pineapple Punch) with greens and corals mixed in for your blocks and letters. How fun and cheery would that be!!

There were just a couple of things we changed up today from the original sample: 1) I used the Subtle Dynamic TIEF instead of the Simple Stripes TIEF. I just liked the effect better; 2) I did not do a splatter technique across the front of the card with my AquaPainter and ink. Instead I stamped the small star image in Pool Party ink. Again, I just liked the ease and look of this more.

I think that's it for today's fun project. Hope you enjoyed! I love to read your comments, so please leave me your thoughts and inspiration as well!!

Apr 12, 2017

Welcome to Wednesday, and the 2nd Wednesday of April -- time for our Stampin' Pretty Pals Blog Hop :-)

I am so thrilled you stopped in for a visit! This month we are featuring projects focused on "families first." This is a great time of year to think about what to make for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or upcoming graduations. Then there are family vacations, new babies, and so much more!!! How would you want to remember those special family moments? We hope to provide you with lots of ideas and that you enjoy our creations.

You may just be starting the Blog Hop or may have come from Tricia Chuba at ButterDish Designs in today's line-up on the Pals Blog Hop listing shown below. You can use the listing to help you move along from blog to blog so you may see all the projects.

So without further ado, let's jump into today's project :-)

Today's project is inspired by my upline, Ann Schach, and my sadness over the soon retirement of one of my most favorite "baby" sets in quite a long time ~ the Little Cuties stamp set. I fell in love with the rocking horse in this set the moment I saw it, and knew I would want to make lots of cute cards with this set. Ann made a card several weeks back that I just fell in love with and have been contemplating on my work table for awhile now. So I attacked it with a ferociousness for today's project -- LOL 😊

I gave this CASE'd design my own twist and flavor for each card - wanting each card to be special and useful for a specific purpose; namely, the gender of the baby.

What could be more about "family first" than the addition of a blessed little one!

And what could be sweeter than a special card to help welcome the bundle of joy!

Each of these cards is similar but unique in its own way.

And these cards are heavily detailed, and quite difficult - primarily because of all the intricate fussy cutting - including the saddle and bridle cut separately in each case. It's a painstaking process but well worth the end result!!

Starting with my So Saffron card, this cutie is stamped on gingham from the Succulent Garden DSP collection, with the image stamped again on So Saffron so I could cut the saddle and bridle separately. Mane, tails, hooves are all watercolored with either Soft Suede or Tip Top Taupe (as in this case) using a blender pen. The "wood" of the rocking horse base is watercolored with an Aquapainter and a blender pen combination and Soft Suede and Smoky Slate inks.

This cutie has Gold Wink of Stella overlay on his saddle, with Metallic Enamel Shapes on the bridle and saddle accents. Very Vanilla thick baker's twine gives a nice country twist to the card, which is embossed with the Lucky Stars TIEF in the background.

This cutie is all ready to take on a princess, all flush in Sweet Sugarplum gingham, also from the Succulent Garden DSP collection.

The Falling Petals TIEF will be retiring at the end of May unfortunately 😞 So enjoy it now while you can!!

Each card's layering circle set is embossed to match the background and popped with dimensionals.

This sweet rocking horse is all decked out with Pearls, and Clear Wink of Stella to add the perfect shimmer!

Now what little rockin' cowboy wouldn't love a pearl handled gun, and a diamond studded saddle?

Hey, I read the westerns - every good gun slinger was rootin' tootin' dandy!!! LOL 😉

Pool Party is the color of choice for this sweet cutie, and Rhinestones the embellishment of choice. The Seaside TIEF creates the perfect background for a dancing pony.

A close up will give you a little more detail.

This saddle is cut from Shimmery White cardstock, with added Wink of Stella for lots of shimmer, to go with the glistening rhinestones!!

This checkerboard pattern? It's from the Tasty Treats specialty DSP collection. Bet you didn't know we had so many cute papers tucked into these collections ~ check them out!!

Don't miss out on this stamp set -- it has so many more possibilities!! I'm already thinking of some other things I want to do while I'm sitting here writing this!! 😄 Get this set before the end of May, and happy crafting to all of you!! Thanks for visiting with me today. Your next stop on today's Blog Hop is Patti MacLeith at Papercrafts by Patti. Or you can refer to the Blog Hop Line-up below. I hope to see you next month!

Mar 20, 2017

Happy Monday! We're kicking off the third week of March -- although here in the Denver area of Colorado, it feels more like June! And I'm getting Spring Fever!! :-) Definitely ready to put away the drab clothes of winter and pull out pretty springy things. I hope I'm not jumping the gun!

It's time to play with the Paper Players [PP336] this week. And I have to say I'm just a little bit excited. I have, for the first time ever, purchased two cute "baby" stamp sets into my inventory this year. And so, I'm actually inking up the first one for the first time!! How fun is that :-) We have some adorable sets to choose from right now and you really should check them out!! Turns out, we all need baby cards, right?!? :-)

I've chosen a pretty little color palate today; and one, I guess, would lend to a girl baby. I was thinking the Wild Wasabi would also look nice with a yellow, like Daffodil Delight. Somehow, the pink just happened - LOL.

Doggone Delightful Stampin' Design Tips:

Layerothology. In keeping with our CAS challenge today, this card layering is simple and sweet. A mat layer of Wild Wasabi, overlaid with Pink Pirouette embossed with the Sparkle TIEF; and a sweet little doily laid for a background to my focal point.

Perfect for Watercoloring. The adorable rocking horse image in the Little Cuties stamp set is perfect for watercoloring. I used my aquapainter and a combination of Soft Suede, Wild Wasabi and Melon Mambo (for the halter and saddle) inks. Isn't this guy just adorable? He's (or she) the reason I bought this set. I originally attemped to cut this image out with our Layering Circles Framelits, but we just don't quite have a circle big enough right now (I'd have to reach back to our retired circles I think). So I ended up with the Lots of Labels Framelits, and punched a hole on either end with my 1/8" Handheld Punch so I could pull a cute loop through. Do you recognize that soft and pretty baker's twine? It was part of the Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, and Whisper White set in last year's Spring Occasions -- it's a soft baker's twine unlike anything else we have right now. So glad I hung onto it!!

A Little Label. I cut a cute little double-layered label with this sweet sentiment from the stamp set. It's tied with the same baker's twine and popped with dimensionals. The entire piece is finished with rows of pearls that I pulled from the artistic set in last year's Spring Occasions. Thank goodness I hold onto all these little items :-) LOL I have a stash, I admit it!!!

What you don't see well in these pictures is that I used Shimmery White cardstock for the rocking horse; and then added some Clear Wink of Stella to little areas on the horse, like the hooves, tail, and harness. It's sweet and shimmery, and a sweet little baby card.

I didn't finish out the inside yet. I've left it so I can pick out the perfect sentiment later when I'm ready to use it :-)

That's a wrap folks!! Time to head off to work for the day. Hopefully it will not be as bad a Monday as last week was. It would be nice to have a somewhat quiet week - ha! We'll see. Remember -- we're counting down the final days of Sale-A-Bration, and now is the time to take advantage of those Free Products!! Place your minimum $50 orders and snap up those goodies before it's too late!!

Ready to place an order? Click HERE to shop in my online Stampin' Up! store 24/7!

May 28, 2016

Happy Saturday! Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Yes, I made it through surgery, and the oral surgeon told me everything went extraordinarily well. I am very relieved. And although I'm somewhat "puffy" and sore, I'm not in a great deal of pain, and am not feeling too bad actually. For which I am very relieved. I'm not eating a whole lot; but hey, maybe I can lose some of this weight I wanted to lose -- LOL.

So, I haven't done a Simply Simple Saturdays post in quite awhile; since I basically skipped yesterday, I thought I'd pop in, give you all an update, and share some fun today. I'm sharing a picture from garden this week with you today. I have been so excited!! I planted some Iris several years ago; but it takes a couple years before they actually bloom for you! I have my very first Iris this year, and I'm just so excited!! And they are just bursting out in full bloom as this week has gone. The Peonies are going to pop any day now too. They're a little late this year because we had such a cool Spring; but they're going to be beautiful when they do open. And I have Lilac blooms this year too -- the first time for those too! The Columbine are even peeking out at you a little over on the right-hand side! It's a lavender garden this year -- LOL!

My sweet friend Kathy, came over to spend the afternoon with me today and kind of "baby" me a little. She brought wonderful soup, some even more wonderful little cakes that were nice and soft and moist -- perfect for sore mouths. And we sat and spent the afternoon in the Studio just chatting and making cards. She had 3 events coming up on her very quickly and she asked if I would be willing to help her design 3 cards, 1 for each event. I told her I'd be very happy to. I'm sure it doesn't help that her entire craft room is totally packed in boxes right now while they undergo a remodel; so what fun to sit in my cozy Studio and play all afternoon. I'm glad I felt well enough today to do this with her!! Want to see what we made?? ;-)

A Birthday, A Baby, and A Graduation -- yes, it is that time of year for everyone I think!! Fun! Exciting! and Hectic! Whenever someone asks me to help design a card for them, I always ask some pertinent questions about the person to whom the card will be presented. Let's start backwards . . . with the Graduation :-)

I asked about the college the young lady who will be receiving this attended; in particular I wanted to know about the school colors. Kathy didn't know the school colors, but knew she had attended New York University. So I went online to check it all out!

So NYU's colors are basically purple. And the minute I saw this "insignia" I thought, huh, we can replicate that. So we did. I used the wing from the Bird Builder punch (retiring next week) to create the little flames, and we basically hand cut the torch handle part. I put the card together with Elegant Eggplant, and accented with Silver Foil, for the "2016" and the matting. Those Large Number framelits are pretty wonderful! You must have a set!!

And pulled out the B.Y.O.P. and Suite Sayings stamp sets to put together the sentiments for the inside of the card, also stamped and matted in Elegant Eggplant.

What do you think of that?? :-) I thought it was pretty ingenious myself!

Then we tackled the baby card next. I pulled out the sweet Made With Love set, and with a little inspiration from Pinterest, created this card.

Kathy had not seen the new In Colors yet, and was so excited when I laid them out for her, that she immediately, said -- these! I want these two for this card.

So we used Flirty Flamingo and Sweet Sugarplum, and made a sweet little baby card. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

There are a couple soon retiring items on this card, like the Heart Border Punch, and the Scallop circle punch. If you don't have these yet, get them purchased before next Tuesday night. After that -- they will be gone forever!

Here is the inside of this sweet card, stamped and matted in Flirty Flamingo; and a little bird in Daffodil Delight ;-)

Lastly we tackled a birthday card for her sister-in-law. I pulled out the Birthday Blooms and the Botanical Builder thinlits set for this card.

Her sister-in-law loves yellow, so I used Daffodil Delight here with an accent of Peek-a-boo Peach and just a touch of Crumb Cake. This card really turned out beautiful and I know her sister-in-law will love it. We lined all the envelopes using the Envelope Liners thinlits. Don't miss out on these -- they are retiring sadly, and these really are a "must have" for your inventory!!

So, there you go -- a little relaxed Saturday fun! We had such a good time; and I'm grateful she was here to spend some time with me and "nurse" me a little. It makes this healing time go a little more easily to have such good friends!

I'm hoping to still have a Mojo Monday design for you by tomorrow; so cross your fingers. Miss Sadie and I have had a little walk on this absolutely gorgeous Spring afternoon; and now I really must take a nap as I finally am feeling pretty worn out. A wonderful Saturday to all of you!!

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